Is Big Daddy Gay?

Watching CAT last night, I started to wonder if the very mean Big Daddy was also gay. His understanding and compassion towards his son when talking about the issue combined with his attitudes towards his wife got me thinking. I tried looking online to see if I could find any analysis that discussed this but didn't see anything.

I'd never thought of the character in this way before, and maybe it's just the way that Ciaran Hinds takes on the character, but is this common thinking or am I just reading too much into it?

^^^Formatting will be your last worry when Pal Joey catches you quoting Edie Sedgwick. And I must say, when Mr. Arrell suggests that dismay at a diagnosis of bowel cancer must mean one is a closet queen (as if straight men don't mind cancer), I see Joey's point.

The post-modernists quoted ignore the very simple fact that for Big Daddy's generation, hetero- and homosexuality were defined by sexual position (active/passive) not the sex of one's partner. As long as Big Daddy was the penetraTOR, he was secure in his normalcy. He also displays a surprisingly tolerant attitude toward penetraTEEs, such as his friends, the previous owners of the plantation, but they are the ones who are "different".

So did Big Daddy enjoy what WE would call "gay sex" when he was a young man? Apparently.

Is he gay (in his terms or ours)? Probably not.

Updated On: 1/2/13 at 03:02 PM

It's been a million years but I always thought Big Daddy screwed around with boys but "did his duty" and settled down with women. His anger at Brick is over Brick not being able to move on and do his duty with Maggie. It's time to put that aside and father some children, Brick.

But seeing his disgust with Big Mama leads me to believe that he might have "done his duty" but he hates having to have done it.

Jordan, according to Freud (and Williams was in Freudian analysis) almost EVERYONE is potentially bisexual.

Joe, you're right that Big Daddy implies homosexual behavior is a sort of fooling around that boys and young men try, and I'm sure he expects Brick to "grow up" and do his duty. But without rereading the play, I'm not sure that means Big Daddy prefers child play to adult heterosexual activity or that he has sublimated his own homosexuality out of "duty".

It was a pretty common attitude when I lived in the Deep South: boys fool around together and then stop when women become available to them. If that's what Daddy means, it may not even matter who penetrates whom. Age would be the defining factor rather than sexual position.

Okay, now *I'm* going to be in trouble with Joey, too.

Jordan, I know you don't cry in the corner because I (or anyone else) disagree with you; but I should have acknowledged that of course you are entitled to see CAT differently than I do. And differently than Williams does as well.

I think conversations bog down sometimes with too much "of course you're entitled to your opinion but" posts. But of course you are.

For the record and IIRC, Williams always insisted that Brick himself was heterosexual, that his problem is that others (his friend and his wife) fail to live up to his ideals. And that in turn causes him to question everything, including himself.

So if Williams wrote Brick as hetero, I doubt the playwright intended Big Daddy to be secretly gay. But that's just Williams' opinion. You and I are entitled to our own.

***

P.S. to Pal Joey: the irony is that I have read three books by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick. All I know about Edie is that she shot Andy Warhol. As Dan Quayle put it, "A mind is a terrible thing not to have one." Or maybe it was Antony Quayle...

^^^The same way children in the South remain "babies" until they graduate from college. It's a different language.

I'm never sure if you're joking, GavestonPS, but Valerie Solanas, admittedly a contemporary of Edie Sedgewick's, shot Andy Warhol.

Oh, topic? No, I don't think Big Daddy is gay.

Thank you, ghostlight. Yes, sometimes I'm joking. Just as often, I'm clueless. Alas, this thread appears to inspire the latter. I appreciate the correction.

Quite obviously, I don't know who the hell Edie Sedgewick is, so God only knows why I brought her up in the first place.

Updated On: 1/3/13 at 07:32 PM

I'm perfectly relaxed, Namo, and I had no problem keeping up with the actual topic of this thread.

I did make errors in a couple of flippant one-liners, which I readily admit. Doing so caused no detour in the actual discussion, however.

If you're saying that I should think twice before making wisecracks, I'll admit that you may have a point. Not saying I'll change, just that you are probably right.

Updated On: 1/3/13 at 07:53 PM

My point was not to be nasty.

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"The same way children in the South remain "babies" until they graduate from college. It's a different language."

As a Southerner all my life, I don't understand this. It's a different culture, and the language is sometimes used differently, but the heart of it is the same.

NO, Big Daddy isn't gay.
Brick? YES. Big Daddy GETS that Brick is a homo. Ergo the problem.